timeout rule

[bebanovich]

Hi,

I am a California boys high school basketball coach who has implemented a Grinnell-type system where we maintain an insane pace ("Am I insane? Or am I so sane that I just blew your mind?" - Kosmo Kramer )and we sub a fresh 5 roughly every minute.

When a shift goes too long in this system, sometimes coaches call a timeout simply to sub in a fresh 5. The preference would be to resume play immediately to allow no rest for the opponent.

My understanding is that, at the college level, the minimum length of the actual timeout is at the descretion of the team who called it and that play can resume immediately after the official reports to the scorer's table to record the timeout.

Am I correct in this understanding? I have heard second or third-hand that this does not apply at the high school level and that play cannot resume immediately unless both teams agree to do so. Is this also correct? If it is, I guess I will have to work with my guys on intelligent use of fouls.

I am also curious if anyone has officiated a team that plays this system and would love to hear an official's point of view. I know that coaches and players who run it have a blast. I have found that opposing players and coaches either have a blast or think it's a travesty.

I have seen this system cause an official or two to suffer noticably. I teach my players that they carry an extra burden to not reach on defense because the style of play sometimes forces officials to make calls from a further distance than they would normally have to and that any unnecessary stoppage of the clock is unacceptable. I don't know if this is 100% accurate but it sure seems to help the kids limit their reaching.

This is a fantastic resource! I'm just curious why the search feature has been disabled. I usually try to search forums carefully to avoid users having to answer the same questions all the time.

Thanks,
David Ramos-Beban
Head Varsity Boys' Basketball Coach
East Palo Alto High School